Just days after unveiling a social advocacy program known as Race Together, one aspect of the “year-long campaign” promised in associated literature came to an unceremonious early ending.

Starbucks teamed up with USA Today to hype its new initiative, which included massive advertising campaigns and corporate instruction to baristas across the U.S. to engage customers in ad hoc conversations about race in America.

A particularly unpopular feature of the program involved the addition of the handwritten phrase “#RaceTogether” on each Starbucks coffee cup, a reference to the Twitter hashtag launched to support the effort. Reuters reported this week that at least this portion of the initiative is no longer being required in the chain’s roughly 22,000 locations.

In a message to employees, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz acknowledged the criticism his corporate activism has attracted.

“I know this hasn’t been easy for any of you,” he wrote, “—let me assure you that we didn’t expect universal praise. We leaned in because we believed that starting this dialogue is what matters most.”

Along with USA Today President Larry Kramer, Schultz previously penned an open letter to Starbucks customers in which he made no such prediction of backlash against Race Together. Instead, he described the program as a way for individuals to share “personal experiences and ideas about how to move our country forward.”

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The letter was included in a publication distributed at Starbucks locations nationwide. The paper also included activities and information meant to provide talking points related to the issue of race relations.

For example, a quiz included the fact that more “white children than black children live in single-parent homes.”

The statement, while technically true, offers little context considering that whites make up nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population.

Another exercise prompted customers to analyze their own life experiences based on an inclusion of other races.

Western Journalism previously reported on the initial controversy surrounding the program. Some compared the divisive rhetoric to Starbucks’ previous public stance in support of anti-gun activist groups.